C Space is a company with a vision. If you work here you will experience:

Dynamic and exciting work that is different than the rest of the industrySmart, talented, and collaborative coworkers who like to deliver quality work and have funStellar client listGood benefits and great flexibility

Cons

This isn’t an environment for someone who can’t embrace change and isn’t willing to be learning and experimenting. C Space is always evolving, usually for the better but change can be hard. The company has been really behind on hiring for about a year but it seems to be getting better. The company needs to develop better managers too. Seems like that’s a big factor in people’s experiences at C Space.

Advice to Management

Stay close to what the day to day feels like for our client facing teams. Take the time to really understand their viewpoints. Spend more time thinking about supporting and growing our mid level talent.

I've been here for about 6 months now and love my job. C Space is clearly committed to continuous improvement in our culture. The work/life balance is real -- while there are some late (6:30pm and on) nights, that is not the norm.

I've worked at other places where 60h/week was the usual. C Space is not that place.

You get to work on cool projects with interesting clients and supportive, smart teammates.

-staffing issues-people are always looking to place blame-Long hours-sick time means work from home-low pay-10 vacation days-office politics-social employees are favorited and promoted over hard working employees-high turnover at the lower and mid level-High stress environment

-Impressive client roster-Fantastic coworkers-Ability to change teams within company-Growth has created opportunities for some, especially the sales team-Constant change and evolution

Cons

-Significant staffing and employee retention issues-No ability to say no-Constant change has created ongoing confusion and inefficiency-Growth at any cost mentality-Always on means no ability to disconnect and recharge (even during PTO)-Compensation is not competitive

Advice to Management

Let’s leverage the recent growth to pause and make sure we’re set up for success in the future. Employee retention issues need to be addressed and solved so that teams can deliver awesome work. While the growth is exciting, it has created pain that is compromising the work. It will be great to see staffing and compensation addressed. A lot had changed in my time here, it’ll be great to keep the good and add even more.

Thanks for taking time to share your thoughts. We agree that our people are our number one asset and we’re glad to hear you value and enjoy your co-workers and clients, alike. We also pride ourselves in helping C Spacers grow and challenge themselves. We believe that with hard work, curiosity and the right tools and opportunities, people can really carve out their career at C Space!

And yes, we certainly are growing and admittedly, growth can create challenges that need to be worked though. We don’t always get it right the first time, but we’re listening and working hard on resourcing and hiring, so that when you’re “off” you can truly disconnect and re-charge. We’ve also been working hard to benchmark and strengthen our compensation plans and will continue to do so, to ensure we’re staying competitive.

Again, we appreciate your feedback and thanks for helping us be better!... MoreLess

The culture is toxic. Most of the company staff is tenured high-level employees coasting through the work week or new associate/associate consultants lacking experience. They have a huge retention problem, especially when it comes to overworked mid-level employees. They say they have hired over 100 people this year, which means that 20-25% of the company hasn't even been working there for a year.

You can expect a high stress, disorganized environment with long hours and low pay. Upper management is a lot of talk when it comes to improving these issues, however I never saw any improvements during my time at C Space. Instead they continued to sell business that could be properly staffed. HR's responses to the negative reviews are not what I experienced at C Space and I find the other low starred reviews to be accurate.

Advice to Management

Focus on making improvements to retain your mid level employees rather than replacing them.

These kind of reviews are hard to read. Your experience is upsetting to hear and obviously not the kind of company we want to work at either. While this it isn’t the experience of all, we hear you and recognize that it’s yours and that’s not okay.

We definitely don’t claim that C Space is right for everyone – our work environment like all consultancies can be stressful – and sometimes the work requires us to work long hours, though your experience seems to go way beyond that. Admittedly, growth can cause pain at least in the short-term and we’ve been working to improve resourcing all year long, with more work to do, and then making changes to ensure people feel more supported with the right tools and resources to do their jobs well. We also have new feedback tools, so we can stay closer to how we're doing and then how we can continue to make C Space a better place to work. All of this takes time and we have more important work to do there.

Thank you for sharing your experience and we truly hope if you’re still at C Space that you work together with your manager, Ops Business Partner or HR to improve your experience and happiness at C Space.... MoreLess

C Space is a company where hard workers and competent employees will be given responsibilities and exposure to clients and challenges that is hard to find at the same level in other agencies. Overall, C Space might be the best in the industry at the storytelling aspect of insights and brand consulting. Their community management is superior to other research agencies and the insights are always strong, actionable, and they generally go beyond 'general findings' that their competitors regurgitate to clients. The New York office has a strong culture that truly cultivates friendship between many employees, as does the Boston office. For an international company, they do a better job than most at establishing rapport across continents, though this still has room for improvement.

Cons

The New York and SF offices' salaries lag significantly behind other agencies in their markets, though I've heard this is improving. There can be long hours (though they don't have to be - it's up to you), but a lot of that is dependent on your client and they probably wouldn't feel as long if the compensation and promotion cycle matched the output. Typical 'big holding company problems'. No benefit to advanced degrees.

Advice to Management

C Space solves for business problems in a truly unique way, and it's exciting. Position yourself -- as well as the work and level of output you create -- as a consulting firm rather than an agency. I think you'll find new business, employee retention, and profit margins (and thus the ability to pay your employees fairly) will all match the fantastic work you're creating! Also, be sure to continually invest in your technology, as many processes that could be expedited are keeping your L1s in the office longer than needed.

Thanks for the thorough and positive review; we’re very grateful you shared it and glad to hear that you had a positive experience during your tenure here.

And we're very proud to hear the comment that our consulting and professional services are superior to others. I’m sure you contributed towards many strong and actionable insights during your time with us.

With regard to compensation, you’re right in that we’re specifically looking at New York and San Francisco based on benchmarking and exit interview feedback, and are glad that those changes are being felt. To your other points, we certainly straddle the line between an agency and a consulting firm—a model that currently works best for our clients, and we will evolve with their needs on this point. With that also comes the need to keep up technologically -- this echoes feedback we’ve received through our weekly pulse surveys.

As expected progress takes time, but we’re very optimistic we're on the right track. Thank you again for your thoughtful review!... MoreLess

Thanks so much for your review. We’re happy to hear that the dedication and hard work our people demonstrate day-after-day is evident! The best part of our roles in People & Ops is watching and enabling our talented employees grow, develop and advance their careers with us.

Your comments about our more junior folks as well as how we could better invest in our senior talent are interesting. I’d love you to consider chatting with your HR business partner, so we can get clearer on how to address your feedback.

Thanks again for being part of what makes C Space such a great place to work!... MoreLess

This company is a stepping stone. If you are looking for a job where you gain experience, but move on after a year C Space may work for you.

Cons

This company is a revolving door, which leaves teams very understaffed and overworked. Last year there was a very long hiring and promotion freeze, so if someone quit we were not allowed to replace them, meaning more work for the individuals on the team without merit. We were promised staffing improvements in January 2018 when the hiring freeze ended but these promises were never fulfilled due to recruitment's lack of ability to catch up from the hiring freeze with new business and high turnover. HR will comment about all the people that they have hired this year, which is great and impressive, however it is not enough! Employees are being abused and its not OK. People are asking for help and they are not getting the support and help they need. Work/life balance is not valued here.

Advice to Management

Hire in anticipation of new business and employee turnover instead of constantly playing catch up.

Your post is very concerning and not the experience we want you to be having. We very much do value work/life balance and hope you come to us in People Operations or HR for support – we can work with you to help try to create a better work/life balance.

A revolving door is not a good characterization for growth. Our attrition is well below industry standards and we’ve had over a hundred new people join us. Growth is hard and we’ve been working to improve and streamline our overall onboarding practice as we look to bring in more world-class talent and expand and strengthen our team.

We would love to help you create a better experience at C Space.... MoreLess

It seems you were a fan of your C Space colleagues (at 8 years you probably had many friendships here), but that you felt the value equation for the work we do in partnership with our clients and the pay wasn't always balanced.

In terms of long-term success potential, the best indicator of that is the fact that we are growing – both with longtime clients and new clients alike. The work is intense for sure, but we’re excited to have also celebrated our 100th hire this year to help make a difference in workload. We’re now about 350 people in our U.S. offices which is exciting.

We need to always work on Show The Love as one of our core values – expressing our deep appreciation, celebrating our accomplishments (including financial rewards). Your candid assessment is motivation for us to always do better, so thank you!... MoreLess

Hard, meaningful, and impactful work, with some of the best people you'll ever meet.

Cons

The agency world is no walk in the park. Clients are tough, expectations are high, and the work load is significant.

Advice to Management

Keep pushing your message of building a Customer Agency that puts the customer at the center of every business. It can sound a little buzzy, but the way C Space executes this mission is authentic and meaningful.

Thank you for writing your honest review.... and most importantly for your over 10 years of service.

You've likely seen it all and have been instrumental to our growth and excellence in our work. I'm guessing you feel the pros outweigh the cons of "agency" life leading to your outstanding tenure with us. As a People & Ops team we are always looking to help our employees find the optimal balance between what they give (hard work, dedication, passion, time) and what they get back (including challenging experiences, learning, flexibility and of course comp and benefits).

Your advice is spot on for our business as a whole, and I agree wholeheartedly that how genuinely we execute on the mission is why we're growing so much this year.... MoreLess